Alaska Airlines new New Recaro seats for economy class that will make their appearance on the airline's new Boeing 737-900ERs. Image from Alaska.
Alaska Airlines has announced that they will be installing new seats from Recaro Aircraft Seating on their 22, soon-to-be delivered, Boeing 737-900ERs.
The seats will offer a six-way adjustable headrest, three inches of recline and an additional inch of legroom.
The additional leg room will not affect the airline’s seat pitch of 31-32″, but it will offer more room for your legs. “The extra inch we refer to is gained by Recaro’s clever design that effectively adds one more inch of room to your living space, without us moving the seats further apart,” Alaska spokes person confirmed to AirlineReporter.com. “Specific to pitch, our pitch will stay consistent with our current standard 31-32 inches.”
Alaska Airlines new New Recaro seats for First Class that will make their appearance on the airline's new Boeing 737-900ERs. Image from Alaska.
Alaska will also get new Recaro seats for the first class cabin that will offer five inches of recline, an articulating seat bottom and a six-way adjustable headrest.
The seat, “design includes a comfortable yet slimmer seatback and bottom and a literature pocket located above the tray table,” said Joe Sprague, Alaska Airlines’ vice president of marketing. “The new seats add to a very special onboard experience that all of our customers flying Alaska’s new 737-900ERs will enjoy, including Boeing’s Sky Interiorwith its improved lighting and sculpted overhead bins that create a more spacious cabinonboard Wi-Fi, Starbucks coffee, premium Washington wines and delicious meals for purchase, as well as our renowned personal service.”
The seats are also lighter and are expected to save about 8,000 gallons of fuel annually per aircraft.
Their seats needed replacing anyway. If they are still flying a bunch of DC-9 relatives, (MD-80-90- B-717 etc.), those airplaces need new seats even more urgently. Their spin about ‘new’ seats on the -900 is great, but wvevn when all are delivered – 2-3-4+ years, the -900 whill make up how much of their fleet? The odds of getting a ‘new and improved’ seat are still more than slim. This is not unique to Alaska! Every airline touts their new features, but fails to mention that fleet-wide implementation could be 10-12 years away. The great and wonderful new features never seem to appear on my flights, so perhaps it is all a fantasy. I still seem to fly on old metal, with very old (unclean) seats and meals/snacks apparently produced in the mid-80s. Yup, even in the front cabin. If a trip is under 1,000 – and I can afford the time, I’ll drive. Alaska tried to bridge the gap between a ‘major’ and a regional and their (owned) regional partner does stick to the short routes – far better than some. The break point is probably seat capacity vs. demand. When Alaska does the flying, the make the effort. Sadly, their fleet is old, stale and smelly. Upgrades for t heir new -900s are great, but it will be a looong time before most of us experience the improvements.
the MD-80’s were retired in 2008, so I guess it’s been a while since you’ve flown them. They fly only 737’s now with the 737-400’s being about the oldest planes they have in the fleet(about 14 years old)…. and that’s not “old” from what I’m seeing in other other airlines. Mostly they fly the 737-700’s and 800’s with the oldest being about 12. The post above is not about fleet-wide implementation…. only that improvements are coming on the new 900’s Alaska has on order.
Alaska’s fleet is much newer than many airlines. In fact, the MD80’s were retired some time ago. While their current fleet does need an update – their fleet is still one of the newest fleets out there.
the adjustable head rest is a nice touch
@Mark C. Yup. Understood. Alaska has a signifigant presence in my area, but they don’t often go where I’m headed. As for the cabin updates, ALL airlines like to advertize the latest, greatest and best – of course. I just think it a tiny bit sad that most of don’t see the ‘new’ features and comforts until well after something even newer is being introduced on the most popular routes. Even when flying to ‘exotic’ or “Major Hub” destinations, multiple, less-than ideal connections are the norm when one lives in the boonies. Would I trade my location and lifestyle for more convenient connections? Hell no! It would just be fun to see a new feature before it becomes obselete. As a practical thing, the only instance in which such a rural, distant and isolated home would be a game-changer might be for a domestic flight crew member who commutes. We don’t have any. Our little valley (population 475-500) includes one, very senior international captain (flying US flag) but he is usually able to hold a SINGLE monthly line of 8-9 days, so he can afford a day of commuting on each end. When I have to travel, it is not quite the same . -C.
Unlike Southwest’s “Evolve,” Alaska isn’t using the new seat as an excuse to reduce pitch. Kudos to them for that…